“Telekinetic” is the first of a series of stories featuring the Hyllis family, who tend to inherit telekinetic “talents.” The story is set after a plague induced apocalypse. The resulting collapse of civilization has reduced mankind back to iron and horsepower.
Tarc Hyllis’s mother (and his grandfather before her) could “feel” things with their talent. They became healers because of their ability to feel inside their patients. This frequently lets them diagnose the underlying causes of an illness. Having made a diagnosis, unfortunately, there is all too often very little they can do to treat the problem.
Tarc’s father can “push” objects with his mind, but because he can’t feel inside of anything, he doesn’t know where to push in order to help to treat his wife’s patients.
Tarc is just gaining the ability to do both of these things. The combination of these two powers will let him both diagnose a physical problem such as bleeding and also stop that bleeding by applying pressure inside the patient. This is a very exciting development for his mother, who so often has had to watch her patients die for lack of effective treatment.
Then some strangers show up to scout the town where the Hyllises live. They plan and initiate a violent takeover. Can Tarc’s powers, weak as they are, play a role in resisting this invasion?